Laura
01-11-2008, 06:25 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/01/11/2008-01-11_wounded_warrior_program_lets_disabled_ve.html
Wounded Warrior program lets disabled veterans get their sport on by Clem Richardson
Friday, January 11th 2008, 4:00 AM
By the time the snow settled, the Sarubbi family of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, found themselves neck-deep in all things ski related.
Along the way, John and Cathy Sarubbi also discovered that their daughter Caitlin is a skiing phenomenon - she has ranked as one of the top disabled skiers in the country.
The couple, who were high school sweethearts, rediscovered their love of the sport and found they were pretty good teaching others how to enjoy it.
That's why, as you read this, the Sarubbis - FDNY Firefighter John, 46; Cathy (she doesn't do the age thing), daughters Caitlin, 17, Jamie, 14, Bre, 11, Casey, 7 months, and son Jon-Jon, 8, are at the Adaptive Sports Center at Windham Mountain in the Catskills, teaching 29 disabled veterans from across the country how to ski.
Part of the Wounded Warrior program that promotes sporting activity for disabled vets, the annual ski weekend lets soldiers who lost limbs in the Iraq conflict learn to use mono-skis, outrigger ski poles and basket chairs to free themselves on the slopes.
The entire family takes part; John and Cathy are certified adaptive skiing instructors.
Tonight, the family will cook and serve dinner for the same vets, something they've been doing for more than seven years.
They also find time for a family ski or two, though Bre warns, "We ski together, but we kids ski a lot faster, so they [gesturing at her parents] are always far behind us."
They do this two or three times a year, sometimes flying out to slopes in Colorado to help disabled skiers. That's why the Sarubbis are Windham Mountain's Ski Family of the Year.
"Cathy and John just turned out to be two of the hardest-working, dedicated volunteers I've ever had," said Cherisse Young, executive director of the Adaptive Sports Foundation (www.adaptivesportsfoundation.org) at Windham Mountain. "They're just great. Whatever I need them to do, they do."
Like many recent tales, this New York story begins in the dust of 9/11.
John, who is with the FDNY Marine Unit but is assigned to Engine 255, Ladder 157, will celebrate his 18th year as a New York City firefighter on Jan. 20. Raised in Sheepshead Bay, he has known Cathy, from nearby Marine Park, for 31 years, 10 more than they have been married.
They met while he was at John Dewey High and she at St. Edmunds.
John spent hours at Ground Zero on 9/11, and many more hours in the weeks afterward helping to recover the bodies of men he knew and worked with - late Firefighter Steve Harrell was his best friend.
Wounded Warrior program lets disabled veterans get their sport on by Clem Richardson
Friday, January 11th 2008, 4:00 AM
By the time the snow settled, the Sarubbi family of Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, found themselves neck-deep in all things ski related.
Along the way, John and Cathy Sarubbi also discovered that their daughter Caitlin is a skiing phenomenon - she has ranked as one of the top disabled skiers in the country.
The couple, who were high school sweethearts, rediscovered their love of the sport and found they were pretty good teaching others how to enjoy it.
That's why, as you read this, the Sarubbis - FDNY Firefighter John, 46; Cathy (she doesn't do the age thing), daughters Caitlin, 17, Jamie, 14, Bre, 11, Casey, 7 months, and son Jon-Jon, 8, are at the Adaptive Sports Center at Windham Mountain in the Catskills, teaching 29 disabled veterans from across the country how to ski.
Part of the Wounded Warrior program that promotes sporting activity for disabled vets, the annual ski weekend lets soldiers who lost limbs in the Iraq conflict learn to use mono-skis, outrigger ski poles and basket chairs to free themselves on the slopes.
The entire family takes part; John and Cathy are certified adaptive skiing instructors.
Tonight, the family will cook and serve dinner for the same vets, something they've been doing for more than seven years.
They also find time for a family ski or two, though Bre warns, "We ski together, but we kids ski a lot faster, so they [gesturing at her parents] are always far behind us."
They do this two or three times a year, sometimes flying out to slopes in Colorado to help disabled skiers. That's why the Sarubbis are Windham Mountain's Ski Family of the Year.
"Cathy and John just turned out to be two of the hardest-working, dedicated volunteers I've ever had," said Cherisse Young, executive director of the Adaptive Sports Foundation (www.adaptivesportsfoundation.org) at Windham Mountain. "They're just great. Whatever I need them to do, they do."
Like many recent tales, this New York story begins in the dust of 9/11.
John, who is with the FDNY Marine Unit but is assigned to Engine 255, Ladder 157, will celebrate his 18th year as a New York City firefighter on Jan. 20. Raised in Sheepshead Bay, he has known Cathy, from nearby Marine Park, for 31 years, 10 more than they have been married.
They met while he was at John Dewey High and she at St. Edmunds.
John spent hours at Ground Zero on 9/11, and many more hours in the weeks afterward helping to recover the bodies of men he knew and worked with - late Firefighter Steve Harrell was his best friend.